First Impressions of Adelaide

Hello from Adelaide! Today started bright and early (actually, it wasn’t at all bright) at 4 am, as I had a flight from Hobart to first Melbourne, and then Adelaide.
After saying my farewells to Colette and Rachel, I got onto Qantas flight QF1010 from Hobart Airport, and flew off into the sky. It was a real shame to leave Hobart, as I was enjoying my time there. Whereas somewhere like Sydney was a great place to go and visit for a couple of weeks, and seemed like a holiday, after my two weeks in Hobart, it felt as though I’d been living there for weeks. I’d learned my way around, knew all of the best places to go, and felt like part of the furniture.
Part of the reason I’d felt so at home was staying with Colette and Rachel. They had made me feel incredibly welcome, and gave me all of the opportunities to really enjoy the rich options that Hobart had to offer. They were the perfect hosts, and I wish them both all the best going forward.
The flight to Melbourne got in at around 7 am, and I spent a couple of hours in the departure lounge waiting for the next flight. Despite what you may think, as big a place as Australia is, it doesn’t actually take too long to fly from city to city. It’s 40 minutes from Hobart to Melbourne, and then 50 minutes from there to Adelaide. So weirdly, I spent longer on Football Manager on the laptop in Melbourne Airport then I actually spent in the air! Having been to Melbourne 4 years ago, and having loved it, it was a shame that my stay in Victoria’s capital was so short. But sadly there wasn’t space in my itenirary for it, and I also wanted to go to new cities I’d never been to before. Which is why I’m now in Adelaide (and will soon be in Perth!)
So having spent the day in Adelaide, what are my thoughts about it? Well, they call Adelaide the city of churches, and it’s pretty obvious why. Everywhere you go, there are churches on every corner. I don’t think it’s an overly religious place, but as all of the churches are aesthetically beautiful, they may well just have been built for design reasons. All of these old churches gives Adelaide a great historical vibe, which is mixed with some new buildings as well. There’s also a really nice park (sort of like Hyde Park in London, as there are plenty of grassy areas to sit on, as well as a clear blue lake) where I spent some time; mainly to get out of the heat of the sun, which is unforgiving. Very different to the Antarctic conditions of Hobart!
With England currently playing in a One Dayer v Australia, my natural first place to go and find was a pub where it would be showing. Luckily enough I stumbled across “The Elephant” pub, meant to be a ‘traditional’ English pub, which happened to have some big screens (and air con). After a drink there, I’ve wandered back to my digs (The Adelaide Travellers Backpackers Inn), where I’ve found there’s a TV here with it on!
So I’m off to watch it!

Until next time, Will